CHART: Australia's Senior Public Servants Are Among The Best Paid In The World

Australia’s senior public servants are paid top dollar compared to their colleagues in other developed countries, according to analysis by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

On two measures — adjusted dollars and how they compare to other graduates — Australian senior public servants are only behind New Zealand and Italy when it comes to a pay packet.

Comparing Gross Domestic Product per capita, the Australian senior public servant are well ahead of the OECD average but behind the UK, Chile, New Zealand and Italy.

The adjusted dollar value compares annual compensation in USD adjusted for purchasing power parity, a statistical technique used to compare the cost of living in different countries.

And the senior managers are doing well under this measure. They’re getting an adjusted $382,000 a year compared to the OECD average of $231,000.

And when compared to the salaries of other tertiary educated people, the senior managers are getting 4.9 times as much pay. Compare this to the OECD average where senior public servants get 3.4 times the pay of the average graduate.

The OECD’s Matthias Rumpf says few issues are more likely to provoke a row than the pay of public servants.

Are they overpaid and underworked or selfless heroes who could be earning more in the private sector?

“We can’t settle that debate here, but, using data from Government at a Glance 2013, we can at least give you some sense of how public sector pay compares across some OECD countries,” says Rumpf, a communications expert at the OECD.